Marquette Golden Eagles

Marquette men try to soar higher in soccer

Marquette is back in the NCAA men's soccer tournament for the first time in 15 years.

Now the seventh-seeded Golden Eagles (16-3-1) want to take advantage of the opportunity as they host Northwestern (12-5-4) at 4 p.m. Sunday in a second-round game at Valley Fields.

It has been a magical season for Marquette, which has yet to lose at home (10-0-1) and will be seeking the program's first NCAA tournament victory.

"This has been a season of unbelievable substance," Marquette coach Louis Bennett said. "And I'll tell you what, it's been so much fun.

"The challenge now is we've got a team that's already won a game in the NCAA. They're an experienced team and they have a completely different style to us.

"They smother you; they contain you. They possess until they create good chances. They are a very disciplined team."

Northwestern used a goal by senior Nick Gendron to defeat Western Illinois, 1-0, in a first-round match Thursday night in Evanston, Ill.

The Wildcats, under coach Tim Lenahan, are playing in the NCAA tournament for the third time in four seasons.

Both Marquette and Northwestern have played against the top-seeded team in the entire NCAA field, Notre Dame. The Golden Eagles lost to the Irish on the road, 3-1, and played to a 1-1 draw with Notre Dame at Valley Fields.

Northwestern scored a 1-0 home-field victory over the Irish.

"We've competed very well against the top teams," Lenahan said. "It's tournament time and I'm not worried about our motivation."

The Golden Eagles gained confidence from some narrow early season victories - including a last-second, game-winning goal against UW-Milwaukee - and carried it through. They posted a signature home-field victory over Connecticut during the Big East schedule and topped Louisville in a Big East quarterfinal on the road.

"You deal with it in sports, image, perception and reality," Bennett said. "We've tried to build an image and perception of ourselves, but the reality is are you winning games.

"Those early games we didn't play as well. We had to accentuate the positive and squeeze out those things that were going to hurt us. We got through those early stages."

The Golden Eagles have excelled with a young back line featuring 6-foot-7 redshirt freshman Axel Sjoberg and also have relied heavily on redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Charlie Lyon and junior midfielder Bryan Ciesiulka.

"A lot goes through him," Bennett said of Ciesiulka, who has five goals and nine assists. "But even the games he hasn't had a lot, he just works his tail off. He's not just the piano player; he's a piano carrier sometimes."

Senior forward Andy Huftalin has a team-high 24 points, including 10 goals and four game-winners. Redshirt junior forward Adam Lysak has five goals and four assists.

If Marquette wins Sunday, it would host a third-round game Nov. 25 against the Louisville-Winthrop winner.

The Wildcats feature Big Ten freshman of the year Joey Calistri, who has a team-leading eight goals. Goalkeeper Tyler Miller has a 0.81 goals-against average and nine shutouts.